November 26

Gary had some speed, and so did Linda.  Linda was a relative (cousin?) that my brother started dating.  She was almost my age.  She worked at an old-school car dealership named Jack Williams Automall and helped me to get a job there.  I was going to work in the prep shop where they checked in the new cars, installed a few things, and did detailing and clean-up after a sale.  Philip was spending most of his time with Linda while I was home with our roommate David and his girlfriend.  They drove me crazy because his girlfriend was pretty hot and I had to listen to them making LOUD love just one bedroom away on a regular basis.  The morning I was to start at the automall I looked out the window and noticed something was wrong.  David’s el Camino was across the street and the pimpmobile was nowhere in sight.

Towed!  Repossessed!  I couldn’t believe the timing.  I was a couple of weeks behind on payments and had been planning on calling them that day around lunch to tell them about my new job.  So I called Linda and she took me to work that day and later hooked me up with someone she knew who sold used cars.  I ended up in a used Toyota hatchback that was ugly but good for basic transportation.

Eventually we moved into the same apartment building that Linda lived in.  Then my brother brought his dog, Jock, from mom and dad’s house.  I think that damn thing was there about a month, and he wreaked havoc on the place.  Think Doberman-sized piles of dog shit on carpet.  Think shredded couch cushions.  He had spent most of his life hanging out in a back yard and was not prepared for an indoor apartment.  My brother eventually gave him up for ‘adoption’ to someone who gave him the structure and discipline that he needed.

Although I had added speed to my existing repertoire of coke and pot I didn’t really start doing it on a regular basis until we moved into those apartments.  At that point if I had money and a hook-up I had meth, simple as that.
I preferred speed for reasons that I considered to be practical.  Twenty-five dollars buys you a decent amount of pot but you really can’t do more than two joints before you get the munchies, eat until you hurt, and then pass out.  You have weed left, but you’re asleep.  What kind of party animal would that make?  I never really liked cocaine that much.  I’d get a slight buzz but it didn’t last and it made my throat numb which imitated post-nasal drip.  Not the most pleasant result and nothing I wanted to pay for.  But methamphetamine — well, twenty-five dollars would last me all weekend, and I wouldn’t sleep from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon.  I didn’t miss any opportunity for fun.  At least that is the way I saw it.  I always tried to keep enough money on hand for my weekend blitz.

But before we moved from Lake Worth to Linda’s apartment complex, I would be remiss if I left out Gail.  Gail was a stripper, and somehow my brother ended up dating her for a brief period.  She was petite with very nice surgically enhanced breasts.  I somehow ended up hanging out at her apartment on more than one occasion with her and a neighbor and my brother.  I had fun with her.  One time she and Paul (the neighbor) and some girl with Paul and myself all went to Lake Mineral Wells State Park to hike around.  It was my first time there.  It was beautiful.  At one point we took different routes back to the parking lot and I grabbed Gail’s hand and we took a shortcut up the side of a hill and won the race!  On another evening she took me to perhaps the crappiest little bar in all of Texas, at Jeterville.  The town consisted of Jeter’s gas station, Jeter’s liquor store and Jeter’s Bar, thus Jeterville.  She knew the guys in the band that was playing that night.  This was on the northern fringe of Fort Worth and attendance was rather sparse.  We got a table and enjoyed part of the first set and at the break they all came over to say hi.  Gail introduced me and told them I played drums.  In spite of my protests they insisted that I sit in on the next set.  So I did.

I had an absolute blast.  They were a standard classic rock band so we played Creedence Clearwater Revival and Eagles and lots of cool songs I was very familiar with.  I’ll always remember that night.

I will also always remember the night Gail got drunk.  We went through a Whataburger drive-through and she flashed the poor kid at the window.  He probably swallowed his retainer.  After I got her home I helped her inside, and then I helped her undress.  Again, I was the perfect gentleman and probably naive.  I have a feeling I could have made love to her if I had wanted, and I don’t think she was as drunk as she seemed, but she was dating my brother so I just tucked her naked body into bed and have regretted it ever since.